The No. 14 seed Florida volleyball team (26-4) opened the
NCAA First Round with a 3-0 sweep (25-9, 25-21, 25-21) of Tulsa (26-10) on
Friday evening at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. With the win, the Gators
face the winner of the first match of the Gainesville Sub-Regional, College of
Charleston (27-7), who earned a victory with a 3-2 thriller over Miami (FL).
Senior right-side hitter Tangerine Wiggs (Seattle,
Wash.) and junior middle blocker Chloe Mann (Gainesville, Fla.) were
stellar on the night, sparking the Gators’ offense with .667 and .500 hitting
efficiencies, respectively. Mann stuffed six blocks on the evening to lead all
players on the court.
Florida held the NCAA’s all-time leader in kills, Tyler
Henderson, to 17 kills on a .257 hitting percentage with eight errors. No other
TU hitter tallied more than six kills.
Madison Monserez (Orlando, Fla.) led the way
defensively for the Orange and Blue with 16 digs on the night.
The Gators jumped out to an early 9-1 lead in the opening
frame, using three straight Tulsa attacking errors and a back-to-back Recek
kills to build a significant advantage. Florida won the first long rally of the
match, utilizing Monserez’s speed and tenacity to spark the Gators to a 12-6
lead. A Mann-Brauneis stuff put Florida at 17-8 and Mann put up a block of her
own to spark a 7-1 rally, ending the set on a roof by Mann and Mallette, 25-9.
A smart tip by Wiggs and two slams by Mann put Florida
ahead, 3-1. A Brauneis ace trickled over the tape to get the Gators to the
double-digit mark, 10-8. A well-placed tip by Smith gave the Gators a
four-point lead, 17-13, and a Brauneis-Smith stuff block forced a Tulsa timeout
as Florida went up, 18-13. A Mallette crosscourt slam put the Gators at the
double-decade mark, 20-14. The Golden Hurricane inched within four, 23-19, but
Recek nailed one off the block to set up set point for Florida, 24-19. A Wiggs
smash out of the middle tilted the second stanza in the Gators’ favor, 25-21.
The Gators started the third frame off strong with a
Brauneis-Mann roof, aided by the stellar defensive efforts of Monserez. A Smith
slam off the slide gave the Gators a two-point advantage, 7-5, and an Unroe ace
kept the lead at two, 13-11. A Brauneis dumped kill put Florida up by four,
16-12, for its largest lead of the set. A Mallette mash through the seam of the
TU block kept the four-point advantage, 18-14, but TU cut the Florida lead to
one with a quick 3-0 run, forcing a Florida timeout at 18-17. Mann slammed a
quick set from Brauneis out of the middle to curtail the TU streak, 19-17, and
a Brauneis ace got the Gators to the double-decade mark at 20-17. Recek slammed
one to end a long rally and get the Gators to match point, 24-20, forcing a TU
timeout. Recek put the match away with a hard crosscourt slam, 25-21.
